Heavy rain washed out a massive water balloon toss planned as one of many activities at the 2018 Fan the Fire youth gathering at St Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church on Saturday, August 11, but organizer Rodd Blessey said the weather served to keep more than 450 young attendees from two dozen Bridgeport Diocese parishes focused on the fun, camaraderie, and potent messages that were being delivered inside the parish center.

Fan the Fire — Connecticut’s largest and longest-running Catholic youth rally — returned to Newtown after the Diocese experimented with relocating the event to St Joseph High School in Trumbull last year.

Mr Blessey, who established the gathering of hundreds of Catholic youths a dozen years ago, said the return was imminently successful, thanks to the energy and participation of not only the many school age participants, but around 50 other volunteers who supported the event, all coming from the St Rose congregation.

“Fan the Fire was a great success,” Mr Blessey told The Newtown Bee following the event. “And it was even more special because 110 of the 450 participants came from Newtown.”

Mr Blessey said Newtown’s Fan The Fire (FTF) is patterned after a similar event in York, Penn., where it has been held successfully for 20 years under the direction of its founder and youth minister Scott Anthony.

Despite the lousy weather raining out virtually all outdoor aspects of the gathering, the youths who attended Saturday’s event enjoyed the opportunity to worship with the Most Reverend Bishop of Bridgeport, Frank J. Caggiano; laughing and learning with the comedy team of Nun and Nunner (Caitie Beardmore and Michaela Glafke, who portray Sister Mary Rose and Sister Maria Stella, respectively); packing 10,000 meals for a Catholic Relief Services mission in Africa; and enjoying a musical keynote from inspirational Christian musician Chris Padgett.

Mr Blessey said it was inspiring for him to see so many young people realizing they had strength in numbers.

“For me, it was seeing the realization that they aren’t alone in their faith,” he said. “They met and had a great time with kids from a lot of different towns and a lot of different parishes. Individually, these young people are trying to learn more about their faith. So for a lot of them, they were seeing such a huge number of peers, which is a departure from the 10 or 15 kids they may interact with in their individual parish youth organizations.”

Mr Blessey was also pleased at how well the messages coming from presenters were received.

“They were really delivering messages in a way that was gauged to the audience,” he said. “Chris Padgett in particular was phenomenal, but he is a national Catholic speaker. Nun and Nunner were great as well. But really, in my opinion, all the speakers were engaging. But the bottom line was all the kids had a lot of fun while learning a little more about their faith — and maybe about themselves as well.”

Mr Blessey said Mr Padgett related a message about making a place for God among the activities and distractions young people are involved in day to day.

“It was great to hear that message being delivered in a way that the kids could relate to,” Mr Blessey said. “Nun and Nunner were also amazing. They took a mix of jokes and reworded lyrics to contemporary songs to make them fun and clean and about faith. And in a separate break-out talk, they discussed why they believe what they believed. It was still lighthearted, but the overall message in their smaller session was much more serious.”

The story of the day, however, was the backing and support Mr Blessey saw from the many parishes who sent youths to St Rose.

“And all the kids, including the 110 Newtown teens, actually had a really fun time at a church event,” he added. “We want them to regard church as a place that is safe and that can be fun while being a place where they can engage in their faith.

“This was just one day, and we want them to keep coming back, but as far as I could see, bringing Fan the Fire back to St Rose was wildly successful.”